Content

The unit examines the source of Chinese civilisation, foundations of traditional Chinese society and patterns of dynasties' transition. It seeks to engage students in a search for a broad understanding of China's continuous struggles for modernisation since the Opium War. The unit will focus on the period between the late imperial era in the early nineteenth century and the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 as a vehicle for studying the enduring legacies of the past-in-the-present.